A man who allegedly threw urine at the entrance of the Taipei office of the Nikkei Shimbun on Friday would be punished in accordance with the law, police said.
Officers at the Songshan Precinct were called to the scene after receiving information that the office of the Japanese newspaper had been splashed with an unknown liquid, which was later confirmed to be urine.
The suspect, who was asked to exchange his ID for a visitor’s pass when entering the building, was later identified as a man surnamed Tien (田), who would be summoned for questioning, police said.
Photo: CNA
Tien would be contravening the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) and could face defamation charges if the newspaper files a lawsuit, police said.
The incident occurred just days after the Nikkei Shimbun reported that about 90 percent of retired Taiwanese military officers have visited China to pass intelligence about the military to Chinese authorities in exchange for money.
The report cited a former military officer using the pseudonym Cheng Tsung-hsien (鄭宗賢) as saying that after he retired in the 2010s, he received “special status” in China for providing intelligence about Taiwan’s armed forces.
However, after Cheng reported all that he knew about the military, the Chinese authorities made trouble for him and forced his restaurant out of business, the report said.
“Even so, I still admire China and don’t have any regrets,” the newspaper quoted Cheng as saying.
The report also cited unnamed military personnel as saying that most officers identify as “Mainlanders,” or waishengren, a term that refers to people who came to Taiwan with the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government in 1949 after it lost the Chinese Civil War.
If an armed conflict with China were to break out, the military would not be able to fight, the newspaper cited the source as saying.
The report has sparked outrage across Taiwan’s political spectrum.
An official from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan on Wednesday morning delivered a letter to the Nikkei Shimbun’s headquarters in Tokyo, expressing regret over what it said was a failure to fact-check the report, besmirching the reputation of the military.
The office also asked the newspaper to refrain from biased reporting.
Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) wrote on social media that he trusted the Nikkei Shimbun’s editorial team to check the veracity of the report, calling on people to refrain from irrational behavior such as attacking the newspaper’s offices.
Asked about the report at a question-and-answer session at the legislature, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said all military personnel identify with their country, regardless of political affiliation.
“Rumors stop with the wise,” Chen said, calling the report “unfounded.”
The KMT on social media called the report “egregious rumor mongering,” saying it has dealt a blow to the morale of the military.
Asked by reporters about the report, Veterans Affairs Council Minister Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) seemed visibly annoyed and used expletives before saying that the article was “full of nonsense.”
The legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Thursday passed a motion to find out if any military officers who retired within the past five years leaked state or military secrets to China.
The committee asked the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Justice and the Mainland Affairs Council to report their findings to the legislature.
However, the KMT criticized the motion, saying it showed a lack of confidence in the armed forces.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the meeting next month, Japanese sources said The holding of a Japan-US leaders’ meeting ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China is positive news for Taiwan, former Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association representative Hiroyasu Izumi said yesterday. After the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in Japan’s House of Representatives election, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to visit the US next month, where she is to meet with Trump ahead of the US president’s planned visit to China from March 31 to April 2 for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
RSS